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Something I notice time and time again is that Magic communities, much like high school, have a special social structure and many different cliques. A community divided is in much worse shape than one that’s unified. This, unfortunately, will never change. This alone is unhealthy, but it’s worsened further by plain ole’ simple bad manners. A new generation of players comes to replace the old guard, and with them come naivety, immaturity, and crass adolescents.

I would guess that most people reading my columns have never played on the Pro Tour – simply because the great majority of Magic players have never played on the Pro Tour. I would also guess that many people reading my columns would like to play on the Pro Tour and compete regularly or semi-regularly in their area’s PTQs. The unfortunate news is that when you finally qualify and go to your first PT there is a very good chance that you will fail to make Day 2 and be back on the PTQ circuit again.
That said, it’s all worth it. Playing on the Tour is a tremendous experience.

Nothing is better than stories about one player dominating a Magic group with a card that no one played. After the domination begins, however, everyone starts including it in their decks. When that happens, it’s like casual group evolution right before your eyes. And here are thirty overlooked cards that might just dominate your kitchen table, if given the right chance.

It’s Worlds – I wasn’t expecting to go, but somehow I made Top 8 at Barcelona and suddenly I’m invited to everything. A lot of my deck was proxies since I knew I could buy the cards I needed onsite. I actually had (or traded for) the rares, but I couldn’t find copies of some of the non-rare cards, like Merchant Scroll, and no one ever carries around cards like that in their trade binders. Thankfully, I knew what Merchant Scroll did. It was a Sorcery, it cost 1U, and it fetched two different kinds of Blue spells that aren’t creatures. That can only leave Instants and Sorceries, right?

When Ted asked me to take a shot at the SCG Daily column, I wondered what I could write about. Then it occurred to me – as the one of the oldest writers on the site as well as a usetabee, I’d write about my war stories. Just imagine me as an even older man (tricky, but possible), sitting on the porch, smoking a pipe and telling you about “the big one” while all the kids (that’s you readers) sit there hoping I’ll finally doze off so you can go play video games.

I’m continuing my exploration of the more unusual Magic Online formats. Last time I talked about the highly addictive Singleton format. This week I want to look at a specialized Singleton format — Rainbow Stairwell.

While waiting for the tournament to begin, my mate Bill Johnston asked which Betrayers common I would most like to open, suggesting it might be Waxmane Baku. Although I hadn’t really thought about this question I said Gnarled Mass without hesitation. I’m not saying that it’s the best common in Betrayers, but Gnarled Mass is just the one that works best for me. So how did I fare at the PTQ with two of Bob Gnarly in my deck? Check inside, friends, check inside.

Those of you familiar with Magic history may remember the Brothers’ War between Mishra and Urza, the two most powerful artificers on Dominaria. But those of you familiar with StarCityGames.com writers will know of the brothers’ war we’re having: Matthew Lubich and his brother Andrew. Both of them have written consistently-entertaining entries for the weekly Casual Challenge, and this week they went head-to-head.

Matthew wrote an excellent primer on the rules for lockdown decks (even if his deck was a little on the underpowered side this time around), whereas his brother came up with one of the most creative kill methods I think I’ve ever seen. The problem is, Andrew’s won before, and Matthew hasn’t. Who to choose?

In the end, I decided to split it evenly, lest I cause fistfights at the Lubich household. Matthew wins this week’s $20 prize, in the sincere hopes that both brothers will keep writing!

And next week’s challenge?

Theme Decks.

That’s right, folks — we want to see the most powerful (and, more importantly, playable) deck you can build around a non-Magic theme. Whether that’s an Edgar Allen Poe deck or a deck related exclusively to emo bands, we want to see your crazy theme deck — and more importantly, how to play a pile of cards that have nothing in common except for flavor. So write it up and send it to Mail us at https://sales.starcitygames.com/contactus/contactform.php?emailid=2, and you could win $20!